B.A.D. are back

REUTERS / COLUMBIA RECORDS - Mick Jones is turning the clock back to the '80s when his iconic band The Clash became mainstream stars.

But the musician behind hits like "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" and "Train in Vain" isn't revisiting the seminal punk band that got him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He is instead going on the road with the cult band he formed shortly after he was kicked out of the Clash in 1983.

Off the back of touring with superband Albarn's Gorillaz, Jones has reactivated his long running project, Big Audio Dynamite.

With their groudbreaking fusion of musical styles, Big Audio Dynamite - or B.A.D. - were well received by music pundits and college students but never quite hit it big in the mainstream.

But Jones, true to his punk-rock outsider roots, revels in the band's cult status.

Mick Jones, musician, saying:

"For us, because we weren't that big and they don't mention us, they don't mention us at all or the other group that was quite ahead of its time, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. They never mention those two groups when they do the compilations of the 80s. They just stood us in very good stead, now. We can do what we like, almost, which we are."

The band took on several forms over the years - including Big Audio Dynamite II under which the band released it's most commercially successful single, "Rush".

But the original B.A.D. line-up have never reunited - until now.

Mick Jones, musician, saying:

"We've been very good in terms of our reformation because we didn't flog a dead horse every couple of years, so it hasn't been dissipated, you know what I mean? One time, it's just these shows and we don't even know if it's, what's going to happen."

Big Audio Dynamite have just toured Britain and appeared at California's Coachella music festival.

A North American summer tour is likely to follow ahead of performing at the world's biggest open air music festival at Glastonbury in June.